Rumors of Wars: The Askirti Chronicles - Book 2

by Danny A. Brown

  “Because I’m the girl with the biggest toys. If you don’t like it, then go crawling back home! I. DON’T. CARE. ABOUT. YOU. The Commonwealth smashed your little fleet with few losses of its own. That’s after I made them sit out a battleship. See this dreadnought sitting outside out here? I haven’t even revealed its secrets yet. It could single handily take the entirety of your task force! And the Commonwealth is building them bigger than this!

  “So, don’t listen to me if you don’t want to. Your nation is imploding, and we’re here to try to do our part to stop that from happening. If you don’t like it, write a report about it!

  “At this point, everyone is dismissed!”

  Jackie was furious. They were supposed to have several war games, not just one. Some of them were to entail embedding Westerly units alongside Commonwealth and Askirti ones. Perhaps they still would, but she needed a break.

  ##

  A few days later, the exercises were wearing thin on everyone as the Westerly captains were increasingly uncooperative and at times sabotaging the war games. They were to finish up their scheduled exercises the next day when Jackie got a call while in her quarters. It was from Commodore Summers on board the Nemesis.

  “Commodore,” Jackie said. “What may I do for you?”

  “Please, just Tabitha now! You do outrank me, I believe! That is if you have a rank. How does that work?”

  “I like ‘head-honcho.’”

  They both laughed.

  Tabitha was someone Jackie respected and enjoyed working with. She was with her at the Battle of Wellington and was a smart, clear-headed woman with high moral standards.

  “So, do I call you ‘High Queen’?” Tabitha asked with a grin.

  “Oh, God no! The honorifics are killing me! Tabitha, to what do I owe the pleasure? I’m sure this isn’t a social call.”

  “No, unfortunately, it is not. I know you and Jeri discussed…stuff. A friend of a friend has sent me an urgent warning.”

  Jackie got very still, almost afraid to ask.

  “It is coming down soon, those associated with you will be rounded up and arrested for treason,” Tabitha said.

  “Treason! What?!”

  “It sounds trumped up, and it is. But honestly Jeri is in more danger than he realizes, I am too.”

  Jackie was amazed at this disclosure.

  Pari?

  <>

  At this point, her thoughts jumped to her former bridge crew on the Nemesis. Lieutenants Marko Turov, Emilia Shepard and Rachel Mansfield.

  Any chance we can help them?

  <>

  Emilia is a political officer?

  <>

  Did Jeri send his wife and daughter to Avalon?

  <>

  Whew! And it’s NOT a palace.

  <>

  “Tabitha, sorry for the pause, I was consulting with my AI. It tells me some of my friends have already been arrested. A few days ago, I told Jeri to get his family to Avalon and it appears they made great timing and are there already.

  “The offer stands for you too. If you want, your family can come to Avalon too.”

  Tabitha’s eyes watered up, “Thank you! I just don’t know if there is enough time!”

  <>

  “I know I’m sharing probably more than I should, but arrest warrants have been issued for both your sons.”

  At this point, Tabitha started crying, something Jackie thought she would never live to see. It hurt knowing the nation of her birth was trying to destroy Tabitha just because of her.

  “Listen to me,” Jackie said slowly. “My AI is very persuasive with computer systems and has delayed their warrants a few days. My advice would be to have them and their families go to the Commonwealth embassy right now unless they can get private transport off the planet and out of the system today.”

  “Thank you,” Tabitha said, still crying. “that means everything to me.”

  I was not able to help my family when they needed me. At least I can help a few of my friends.

  “I have a plan to get you and Jeri off the Nemesis if you want it. Anyone else you’d like to take?”

  Tabitha thought for a moment, “Ana Novak.”

  <>

  “Tabitha, we’re out of time. Pari just informed me that fifteen arrest warrants had been issued for staff on the Nemesis. It includes you, Jeri, and Ana!”

  “What are we going to do?!”

  “Okay, you are going to put on your dress uniform, and tell those other fourteen people they were all invited to the Hania for dinner with me. We’ll issue a schedule of dinners for ‘special’ flagship staff that matches, so everyone sees it. The ones with the Commonwealth and my ship will, of course, be fakes as I’m not hosting any real dinners. Besides Jeri and Ana, I wouldn’t notify anyone of what we are doing. But tell your folks to come now, and I mean right now!”

  “Thank you!”

  “Go! Don’t waste another second! And call your kids too, they need to move their butts!” Jackie said before ending the call.

  She pressed another button, “Commodore Reynolds, take us to Condition Three at once.”

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “I’ll explain on the flag bridge.”

  There was not a moment to lose. Jackie began running for the flag bridge at a full sprint.

  When she got there, Rick was there and Alice Reynolds, along with the flag staff.

  “So, what is the emergency?” Alice asked.

  Jackie filled them in. While Alice was astonished that the Westerly Federation would stoop so low, Rick was not surprised at all.

  “Typical. They left all that control crap with the secret police in place, just so they can do this one day,” he said.

  “So, what’s your plan? I’d like our war games not to turn into a shooting war,” Alice said evenly.

  “Maximum scare, they will back down if we need them to. Launch all fighters, stealth protocol. Prepare our battleships for stealth as well. The Federation will crap a brick in their shorts to see four battleships disappear. Oh yea, let’s inform our friends at the Commonwealth what is going on.”

  “What about the Hania?” Alice asked.

  “Nothing right now, but let’s prepare to move to Zeta-Alpha-Beta-One-Zero-Nine formation.”

  An hour later, Jackie received notice that the commodore’s shuttle from the Nemesis was leaving.

  “So, it begins,” she muttered.

  A few minutes later, the shuttle was halfway to the Hania when Jackie received a panicked message.

  “They are ordering us back! We need help!” she could hear Tabitha saying.

  “Initiate protocol Epsilon-Delta-Delta”, Commodore Reynolds said into the comm.

  The Commonwealth and Askirti warships at once began repositioning, and four battleships disappeared from sensors altogether.

  Immediately the Westerly ships reacted and began repositioning as two marine assault crafts, or MACs, launched from the Nemesis.

  �
��Attention Commonwealth and Askirti ships. An unauthorized shuttle launch has occurred by fugitives wanted by the Westerly Federation. Stand down while we recover our personnel.”

  “Nemesis, the shuttle has Westerly officers including your commodore on board on approach at the invitation of the Askirti High Queen. Make no attempt to intervene,” Commodore Reynolds broadcasted.

  Immediately a missile left the Nemesis racing towards the shuttle holding the man Jackie loved as a father.

  As the crew held their breath, the rocket flew past the MACs and struck an invisible object, exploding on impact onto the hull of the ARNS Hehewuti just before it came out of stealth. As it was not a missile meant for capital ships, the damage was not expected to be much.

  “Captain Glaude, how’s your ship?” Alice asked over the comm.

  “It appears the exterior nanofibers are gone in that section,” Rice answered, “as is a bit of the hull, but the interior nanofibers absorbed and dispersed much of the shock. I’ll have it examined up close after tensions ease. But overall this is even better than the projections showed.”

  “Thank you, Captain, we now have the shuttle, return to formation,” the commodore closed the connection.

  “Uncloak our fighters and the other three battleships. Take us to Condition One,” Jackie ordered.

  Doing so revealed an astounding two thousand fighters taking an aggressive stance against the unprepared Westerly fleet, and three battleships on the opposite side of the Westerly ships in addition to the now de-cloaked ARNS Hehewuti.

  “Condition One activated,” Alice announced.

  “Westerly Federation fleet. This is Jacqueline Campo, High Queen of the Askirti Federation. You have fired on us unprovoked. I would like to believe that you were attempting to fire ruthlessly on an unarmed shuttle rather than to start a war,” Jackie said. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

  An incoming message came in with a young-looking officer appearing quite pale, “We did not know! You set us up! This is your fault!”

  She supposed this was the political officer, and from the way he addressed her, was not a sharp one at that.

  Jackie responded, “I assure you the sensor logs clearly show that the Westerly Federation fired on our battleship, the ARNS Hehewuti. I suppose you could interpret those same sensor readings as you have fired on an unarmed shuttle containing both a highly decorated commodore and captain, who were on their way here for dinner, per my invitation. I am told the passengers were informed of the attack and are rightfully scared to return and hence are requesting asylum. Seeing what just happened, I think I will be granting it to them.”

  “You can’t do that! I have my orders! You will return them right away!” the belligerent man said.

  “Or what? You’ll start a war between two allies? Already, I am considering if I should draw an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. You fired one missile, perhaps I get to fire one missile. Only mine will crack the Nemesis in two. Consider your next words carefully.”

  The young officer gulped loudly then killed the connection.

  “Looks like they are breaking off, they are leaving,” Alice said.

  “Goodbye and good riddance,” Jackie said with a grimace. “I suppose we need to attend to our guests.”

  She knew this was not good for their relationship with the Westerly’s, but it was not a significant loss to her. At least her surrogate father was safe.

  So much for the group pirate hunt. It was time to go home to Avalon.

  Chapter 6

  The Loango System, Reslorian Space

  After the failure of the joint task force with the Westerly Federation, the Commonwealth decided to continue pursuing piracy on its own for now. That was okay with Jackie, as the joint task force was just a political maneuver meant to keep warm relations with them, which was still a significant power. And while she did want to hunt pirates, it was easier doing it without a joint task force. But truthfully, she was relieved the joint exercise was a thing of the past.

  Despite this setback, her relationship with the Commonwealth and its prime minister was stronger than ever. Indeed, she was to receive delivery of the rest of her fleet in just a few weeks.

  Relations with the Westerly Federation broke down over the weeks that followed as paranoia inside its borders reaching levels not seen in recent memory. They did not need the Zikars to destroy them as they were doing it all on their own.

  In the meantime, Jackie was asked by King Eisenberg to provide security in an obscure region of space, a mining system, which happened to be yet another Reslorian system without a Gate.

  “I need to make arrangements for the transfer of a Gate here,” she commented to no one in particular.

  While each inhabited Reslorian system now had a Gate, many other systems that were not inhabited did not have one. The importance of this system could not be understated, as many rare and valuable elements came from here. It was also a nexus of sorts for systems further out, other minor powers, all lacking a Gate.

  “I’m so bored,” she bemoaned.

  “My, and what shall we do to entertain you?” Commodore Reynolds commented with a smirk.

  “I think I need to blow off some steam. I haven’t been sparring as much lately.”

  “Well, I understand that certain marines have noticeably fewer bruises lately,” Alice retorted.

  Everyone knew that going up against Jackie was a losing proposition, so sometimes folks had to be “volunteered.”

  “The rest of the convoy should be here soon at which time we can get underway.”

  This convoy was more important than most, and was probably a mistake, at least in Jackie’s estimation. She thought it made too big of a target. When they were talking about a hundred ships, she thought it would be a useful distraction to the rumors of the Zikars military buildup and the implications of such. But the flow of trade had been severely hampered by piracy, as such everyone was asking for protection.

  This convoy contained important technology that was to be traded, critical raw materials that needed to make it to manufacturers, and vital personnel as there were a large number of folks with special skills interested in migrating to Reslorian space with their economic boom, not to mention being the host nation for the new High Queen.

  The prestige of the Reslorians had soared with Jackie accepting their offer of a home base. But the availability of the Gates plus their newfound ability to lock the Gates, all brought by Jackie, had caused trade and immigration to soar. Corporate and personal wealth was skyrocketing as Reslorians basked in their newfound respectability and prosperity.

  And I get to play babysitter, she mused.

  “The last hundred and twenty ships will be here by morning, then we can get underway,” Alice reminded her.

  “And that makes what, twelve hundred ships? This is out of control! Perhaps we should take all our ships out of cloak to scare away the bad guys. If you asked me, this is asking for trouble.”

  Jackie had the majority of her task force cloaked, thereby hiding her numbers. She was keen on hiding her best assets, allowing people to only know about half her light cruisers and a handful of destroyers.

  One of her favorite topics was her corvettes, all currently stealthed. Because of their small size and low energy profile, they had better stealth than anything else, able to get right next to another ship without being detected. As a result, she disclosed none of the forty she had seeded at the system checkpoints.

  All her larger ships remained in stealth as well but had to keep their distance. Ships such as the heavy cruisers and battleships had to stay far away from heavily trafficked areas to remain undetected. And her dreadnought? Well, it was best to keep it and the troop carriers even further away.

  ##

  “Let the convoy know it’s time to form up,” Jackie said.

  Routing signals thru one of her light cruisers was a simple task, and with FTL communications, nobody would be the wiser as to what ship she was on. Many
of the captains had complained about such a “light” escort, with only seventeen small warships appearing on their scans.

  “If they knew a dreadnought led them, four battleships trailed them, and the rest of our ships were threaded throughout, they wouldn’t worry,” Captain Papadopoulos said over the comm.

  “I know, but His Majesty did say they want to bait the pirates. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise!” Alice responded.

  She was anxious for payback. The piracy in their sector had been excessive, a lot of goods went missing and a lot of people disappeared. A lot of individuals in this task force wanted to exact justice on the pirates.

  “Fifteen hundred ships. This is absolutely crazy! We are going to have to get a Gate out here,” Jackie said.

  “I think you just want to avoid the long FTL commute,” Rick retorted.

  “True.”

  The fleet had finished forming up, and in stages went to FTL, traveling at about a third of the maximum speed for the naval ships.

  ##

  The first stop was almost pointless, as it was a courtesy to the civilians as not all their ships were well equipped for FTL and had to stop to tune their engines or let them rest. The Askirti military ships did not need to stop at all.

  It was after the third scheduled stop she went ballistic.

  “What do you mean their FTL broke! When will it be fixed?!”

  Jackie could not believe she had to escort all of these ships. Some of the them seemed barely capable of faster than light propulsion, yet it was not one of those that broke. It was a fancy and expensive liner, carrying over twenty thousand passengers, most of which were headed for Reslorian space, though others would travel further. As the Reslorian Empire now had Gates, some were hoping just to make it that far, then make other arrangements for transportation.

  “Did they have to bring that many on their crappy ship!” Jackie exclaimed.

  “In all fairness, there are four other passenger ships the same size, and none of them have had trouble or even complained once,” Alice said.

  It had taken much work, mainly on Jackie’s part, to get Alice to treat her as an ordinary person and not as the “High Queen.” So, for Alice to stand up to her, even a little bit was a relief to Jackie, and she was not going to punish her for it. But they had been stuck here for four hours, and Jackie was ready to get underway.